U.S. judge approves BP agreement for Gulf oil spill
Posted : Tuesday, 29 January 2013 01:41PM
(Reuters) - A U.S. judge has accepted an agreement by BP Plc <BP.L> to plead guilty for its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster and pay $4.5 billion in penalties for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The April 2010 explosion on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers. The mile-deep Macondo oil well then spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf over 87 days, fouling shorelines from Texas to Florida.
"The judge has accepted the plea," a court official said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
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